Directory

Neil S. Siegel

Work in Progress

• Revisiting the Essential Functions Thesis: A Structural Account of the Supreme Court’s Roles (with Curtis A. Bradley)

Forthcoming

• Narrow but Deep: The McCulloch Principle, Collective-Action Theory, and Section 3 Enforcement, 39 CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY (forthcoming 2024)

Books

• The Collective-Action Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2024)
• United States Constitutional Law (Foundation Press, 2d ed. 2024) (with Daniel A. Farber)

Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters

• Balkin Amid Balkanization: Constitutional Construction, the Uses of History, and Interpretive Discretion in a Divided Country, DUKE LAW AND LEGAL THEORY SERIES (2025)
• The Wages of Crying Roe: Some Realism About Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 2 JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY (2024)
• The Trump Presidency, Racial Realignment, and the Future of Constitutional Norms, in Amending America's Unwritten Constitution (Richard Albert, Yaniv Roznai, & Ryan C. Williams eds., Cambridge University Press, 2022)
• The Trouble with Court-Packing  72 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 71(2022)
• Composition of the Supreme Court, Testimony Before the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States (July 20, 2021)
• Why the Nineteenth Amendment Matters Today: A Guide for the Centennial, 27 DUKE JOURNAL OF GENDER LAW & POLICY 235-268 (2020)
• Historical Gloss, Madisonian Liquidation, and the Originalism Debate, 106 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 1 (2020) (with Curtis A. Bradley)
• The Pregnant Captain, the Notorious REG, and the Vision of RBG: The Story of Struck v. Secretary of Defense,in REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND JUSTICE STORIES (Kate Shaw, Reva Siegel, and Melissa Murray eds.)
• Foreword: The October 2018 Term: Leaving Things Undecided—and Non-Partisan—For Now, AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY SUPREME COURT REVIEW (2019)
• Law is Not Enough, 45 OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 197 (2019)(2018 Carhart Lecture)
• After the Trump Era: A Constitutional Role Morality for Presidents and Members of Congress, 107 GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL 109 (2018)
• Political Norms, Constitutional Conventions, and President Donald Trump, 93 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 177 (2018) (symposium entitled “The Future of the U.S. Constitution”)
• Reciprocal Legitimation in the Federal Courts System: Racial Segregation, Reapportionment, and Obergefell Appendix A, 70 VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW 1183 (2017)
• Historical Gloss, Constitutional Conventions, and the Judicial Separation of Powers, 105 GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL 255 (2017) (with Curtis A. Bradley)
• The Distinctive Role of Justice Samuel Alito: From a Politics of Restoration to a Politics of Dissent, 126 YALE LAW JOURNAL FORUM 164 (2016)
• The Taxing Clause, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016) (with Steven J. Willis)
• The Power to Tax, Not to Destroy: An Effects Theory of the Taxing Clause, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016)
• The Necessary and Proper Clause, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016) (with Gary Lawson)
• The Necessary and Proper Clause and the Collective Action Principle, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016)
• Direct and Indirect Taxes, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016) (with Steven J. Willis)
• Still Very Narrow after All These Years—And Rightly So, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER, INTERACTIVE CONSTITUTION (2016)
• After Recess: Historical Practice, Textual Ambiguity, and Constitutional Adverse Possession, 2014 SUPREME COURT REVIEW 1 (2015) (with Curtis A. Bradley)
• Compelling Interests and Contraception, 47 CONNECTICUT LAW REVIEW 1025 (2015) (with Reva B. Siegel) (symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut)
• Griswold at 50: Contraception as a Sex Equality Right, 124 YALE LAW JOURNAL FORUM (2015) (with Reva B. Siegel)
• Constructed Constraint and the Constitutional Text, 64 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 1213 (2015) (with Curtis A. Bradley)
• Struck by Stereotype: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Pregnancy Discrimination as Sex Discrimination, in THE LEGACY OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG (Scott Dodson ed., 2015) (with Reva B. Siegel)
• Federalism as a Way Station: Windsor as Exemplar of Doctrine in Motion, 6 JOURNAL OF LEGAL ANALYSIS (2014)
• None of the Law But One, 62 DRAKE L. REV. 1055 (2014) (constitutional law symposium on “The Obamacare Case and Its Significance for the 50th Anniversary of LBJ’s Great Society”)
• Equality Arguments for Abortion Rights, 60 UCLA LAW REVIEW DISCOURSE 160 (2013) (with Reva B. Siegel)
• The New Textualism, Progressive Constitutionalism, and Abortion Rights: A Reply to Jeffrey Rosen, 25 YALE JOURNAL OF LAW AND HUMANITIES 55 (2013)
• Collective Action Federalism and Its Discontents, 92 TEXAS LAW REVIEW 1937 (2013)
• More Law than Politics: The Chief, the “Mandate,” Legality, and Statesmanship, in THE HEALTH CARE CASE: THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS (Nathaniel Persily, Gillian E. Metzger & Trevor W. Morrison eds., 2013)
• Jack Balkin’s Rich Historicism and Diet Originalism: Health Benefits and Risks for the Constitutional System, 111 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 931 (April 2013) (reviewing JACK M. BALKIN, LIVING ORIGINALISM (2011))
• Distinguishing the “Truly National” from the “Truly Local”: Customary Allocation, Commercial Activity, and Collective Action, 62 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 797 (2012) (symposium on law and custom)
• Not the Power to Destroy: An Effects Theory of the Tax Power, 99 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 1195 (October 2012) (with Robert D. Cooter)
• Free Riding on Benevolence: Collective Action Federalism and the Minimum Coverage Provision, 75 LAW &CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS 29 (2012) (Issue No. 3)
• The Liberty of Free Riders: The Minimum Coverage Provision, Mill’s “Harm Principle,” and American Social Morality, 38 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF LAW & MEDICINE 374 (2012) (with Jedediah Purdy) (symposium on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)
• “Early-Bird Special” Indeed!: Why the Tax Anti-Injunction Act Permits the Present Challenges to the Minimum Coverage Provision, 121 YALE LAW JOURNAL ONLINE 389 (2012) (with Michael C. Dorf)
• Four Constitutional Limits that the Minimum Coverage Provision Respects, 27 CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY 591 (2011)
• Collective Action Federalism: A General Theory of Article I, Section 8, 63 STANFORD LAW REVIEW 115 (2010) (with Robert D. Cooter), republished as revised in COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN (Tom Ginsburg ed., 2012)
• Struck by Stereotype: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Pregnancy Discrimination as Sex Discrimination, 59 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 771 (2010) (with Reva B. Siegel) (postscript by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
• Prudentialism in McDonald v. City of Chicago, 6 DUKE JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & PUBLIC POLICY 16 (Special Issue 2010)
• Interring the Rhetoric of Judicial Activism, 59 DEPAUL LAW REVIEW 555 (2010) (Clifford Symposium)
• Pregnancy and the Anti-Stereotyping Principle: From Struck to Carhart, 70 OHIO STATE LAW JOURNAL 1095 (2009) (with Reva B. Siegel) (symposium on the jurisprudence of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
• “Equal Citizenship Stature”: Justice Ginsburg’s Constitutional Vision, 43 NEW ENGLAND LAW REVIEW 799 (2009) (symposium on the jurisprudence of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
• A Coase Theorem for Constitutional Theory, 2010 MICHIGAN STATE LAW REVIEW 583 (symposium: A Response to BARRY FRIEDMAN, THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE (2009)
• The Virtue of Judicial Statesmanship, 86 TEXAS LAW REVIEW 959 (2008)
• Dole’s Future: A Strategic Analysis, 16 SUPREME COURT ECONOMIC REVIEW 165 (2008)
• International Delegations and the Values of Federalism, 70 LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS 93 (2008)
• Umpires at Bat: On Integration and Legitimation, 24 CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY 701 (2007)
• Theorizing the Law/Politics Distinction: Neutral Principles, Affirmative Action, and the Enduring Insight of Paul Mishkin, 95 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW 1473 (2007) (with Robert C. Post))
• Race-Conscious Student Assignment Plans: Balkanization, Integration, and Individualized Consideration, 56 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 781 (2006)
• Some Modest Uses of Transnational Legal Perspectives in First-Year Constitutional Law, 56 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 201 (2006)
• A Theory in Search of a Court, and Itself: Judicial Minimalism at the Supreme Court Bar, 103 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1951 (2005)
• A Prescription for Perilous Times, 93 GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL 1645 (2005)
• Commandeering and Its Alternatives: A Federalism Perspective, 59 VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW 1629 (2006)
• Why the Eleventh Amendment Always Matters, Even When Transaction Costs Are Zero: A Reply to Professor Farber, 18 CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY 177 (2001)

Issues Edited

• Foreword The Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: Ideas from the Academy, 75 LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS i (2012) (Issue No. 3)

Comments

• State Sovereign Immunity and Stare Decisis: Solving the Prisoners’ Dilemma Within the Court, 89 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW 1165 (2001)
• Sen and the Hart of Jurisprudence: A Critique of the Economic Analysis of Judicial Behavior, 87 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW 1581 (1999)

Recent Legal Blog Posts

• The Collective-Action Constitution and the Community of Legal Scholars, BALKINIZATION (September 14, 2024)
• Bruen in light of Rahimi: Doctrine that Hands a Loaded Gun to Lower Courts, BALKINIZATION (November 8, 2023)
• The Wages of Crying Roe, BALKINIZATION (October 23, 2023)
• The Trouble with Court-Packing, BALKINIZATION (February 5, 2022)
• The Trump Presidency, Racial Realignment, and the Future of Constitutional Norms, BALKINIZATION (January 29, 2021)
• Before (and Before and Before) Severability, BALKANIZATION (November 10, 2020)
• We Already Know Enough to Conclude that President Trump Should Be Impeached and Removed from Office, BALKINIZATION (October 6, 2019)
• In Defense of the Chief Justice's Execution of His Responsibilities in NFIB v. Sebelius, BALKINIZATION (March 31, 2019)
• Justice Frankfurter's Misplaced Legitimacy Concerns in the Reapportionment Cases, BALKINIZATION (March 28, 2019)
• The Anti-Constitutionality of Court-Packing, BALKANIZATION (March 26, 2019)
• A Different Border Wall: Judgments of Legal Quality in Texas v. United States, BALKINIZATION (December 22, 2018)
• Texas v. U.S.: Congress’s Inherent Power to Require No One to Do Anything, BALKINZATION (December 18, 2018) 
• A Constitutional Role Morality for Presidents and Members of Congress, BALKANIZATION (February 7, 2018)
• Political Norms, Constitutional Conventions, and President Trump, BALKANIZATION, January 21, 2018
• Countermajoritarian Difficulties and the Political Branches: Contesting "Elections Have Consequences", ACSblog (April 7, 2017)
• Norms and Conventions Meet Donald Trump, Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog (March 2, 2017)
• The U.S. Constitution, Constitutional Conventions, and President Trump, Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog (March 1, 2017)
• Reciprocal Legitimation in Response to President Trump, BALKANIZATION (February 14, 2017)
• Judicial and Media Independence After the Next Attack, LAWFARE (February 9, 2017)
• The Distinctive Role of Justice Samuel Alito: From a Politics of Restoration to a Politics of Dissent, BALKANIZATION (October 19, 2016)
• Reciprocal Legitimation in the Federal Courts System, BALKINIZATION (July 18, 2016)
• The Supreme Court's Reassuring--and Concerning--Abortion Ruling, ACSblog (July 5, 2016)
• Constitutional Conventions, the Judicial Separation of Powers, and Justice Scalia's Replacement, BALKINIZATION (February 14, 2016) (with Curtis Bradley)
• John Roberts, Ted Olson, and the Judicial Separation of Powers, BALKINIZATION (January 26, 2016)
• Obergefell, Judaism, and the Authority of Tradition, BALKINIZATION (September 09, 2015) Whole Woman’s Health: Casey, Res Judicata, and Supreme Court Review, BALKINIZATION (June 24, 2015)
• Windsor: Encouraging Constitutional Change, Not (Just) Clearing the Channels of Political Change, BALKINIZATION (March 17, 2015)
• Clear Text Versus Extra-Textual Considerations: Bond, Noel Canning, and King, BALKINIZATION (March 5, 2015)
• Animus Versus Moral Opposition: Material and Expressive Considerations, BALKINIZATION (September 30, 2014)
   

Popular Publications

• The Lawlessness of the Dobbs Decision, SLATE (June 27, 2022) (with Dahlia Lithwick)
• How RBG Would Have Powered Through this Crisis, CNN (September 21, 2020)
• The Supreme Court Is Avoiding Talking About Race, Atlantic (August 7, 2020)
• Anthony Kennedy is Not Stupid, SLATE, February 5, 2017 (with Dahlia Lithwick)
• The Democrats Can't Block Gorusch, SLATE, February 1, 2017 (with Dahlia Lithwick)
• Court-Hacking Comes to North Carolina, Raleigh News & Observer, Oct. 18. 2016 (with Joseph Blocher)
• A Litmus Test for Trump’s Racism, The Hill, June 10, 2016
• The Harm in the GOP’s Pseudo-Principled Supreme Court Stance, THE HILL, April 15, 2016
• The American People Will Decide the Supreme Court’s Future Anyway, THE HILL, March 3, 2016
• Does CNN Deserve to be Reelected?, HUFFINGTON POST, November 8, 2012
• Romney, Women, and the Supreme Court, HUFFINGTON POST, Nov. 5, 2012
• Yes, the Justices Indeed “Make Law,” RALEIGH NEWS &OBSERVER, July 13, 2009
• The Meaning of the Court’s Decision in the School Cases, CONTRA COSTA TIMES, July 2007
• Detainees and the Constitution, RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER, Sept. 27, 2006, at A13
• Beware the Anti-Freedom Amendment, RALEIGH NEWS &OBSERVER, June 9, 2006, at A15
• Separating Childhood Heroes from Today’s Politics, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Feb. 24, 2006, at A15
• Taking Issue: Americans Deserve Answers, National Public Radio Online, Oct. 20, 2005, at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4965299
• Remembering Chief Justice Rehnquist, WASHINGTON POST, Sept. 5, 2005, at A30
• Rigorous Questions Would Be Only Fair, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, July 21, 2005, at A19
• The Conservative Choice Is a Moderate, RALEIGH NEWS &OBSERVER, July 6, 2005, at A13>
• The Rhetoric Behind “Strict Constructionism,” DURHAM HERALD-SUN, June 19, 2005, at A11 (with Aziz Huq)
• Why President Bush Should Not Take the 5th, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, June 17, 2005, at B11
• Medical Marijuana: Read Between the Lines, RALEIGH NEWS &OBSERVER, June 14, 2005, at A11
• Justices Create Confusion in Sentencing by Declaring Guidelines Advisory, DAILY JOURNAL, Jan. 18, 2005 (with Erwin Chemerinsky)
• Nomination Could Bridge Divide, SUN SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), November 22, 2004, at 23A
• The Election and the U.S. Supreme Court, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, November 2, 2004, at C21